
♦ V 



Book. 



^ 



< ^ 3b 



/ '^ 



■/ 



THE 



INDISSOLUBLE NATURE 



OF THE 



AMERICAN UNION, 



CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH THE ASSUMED 
RIGHT OF SECESSION. 



A LETTER 

TO HON. PETER COOPER, NEW YORK. 



BY NAHUM CAPEN. 



BOSTON: 

A. WILLIAMS AND COMPANY. 

NEW YORK: ROSS AND TOUSEY. 
1862. 










I 



/3/'j 



New York, May 18, 1861. 

Dear Sir : I received your esteemed favor, and unite with you in 
heartfelt sorrow to find our country involved in an unnatural and dis- 
graceful conflict — a conflict between brethren bound together as we are 
by evei-y consideration of interest and duty to preserve the integrity of 
a Union intended never to be broken. This Union has given us i)eace 
and prosperity at home, with honor and respect throughout the world. 
This Union is Avorth preserving at any and every cost of life and treasure, 
not only for the benefits it is calculated to bring to the people of the 
North, but also for the greater benefits it has secured, and will continue 
to secure, to our brethren of the South. 

It is a most lamentable sight to see such a treasure — such a peai'l of 
great price — cast on the uncertain chances of a demoralizing and deso- 
lating war ; a war that has grown entirely out of false notions of interest, 
and the long-continued misrepresentations by which our Southern neigh- 
bors have been persuaded to believe that we of the North were determined 
to make war upon an institution, that, in their opinion, we did not under- 
stand, and could not appreciate. 

A more fatal error never controlled a gi'eat community. So far from 
any considerable number of the people of the North desiring to interfere 
with the institutions of the South, they are, as a body, now, and ever have 
been, determined to secure to them every right which they can claim either 
legally or equitably under the Constitution of the United States. When 
this fact shall come to be brought home to their understandings, they 
will see at once that there is no cause for quarrel between us. 

As a nation our interests are mutual. One member cannot suffer with- 
out an injury to the whole body to which it belongs. 

With our nation united, we shall remain strong and respected ; with it 
torn and dissevered, we make a necessity for standing armies, which will 
eat out our strength, and tempt the world to take advantage of our weak- 
ness and folly as a nation. 

I sincerely hope that you will give to our distracted country the benefit 
of your long and arduous study in the science and philosophy of our 
government. It is the only government calculated to secure the reward 
cf labor to the hand that earns it. 

Your compliance with this request will, I ti'ust, diffuse correct knowl- 
edge, and promote the cause of peace, and will much oblige 
Your friend, 

PETER COOPER. 

Nahum Capen, Esq. 



/s / 



THE 



INDISSOLUBLE NATURE 



OF 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 



Mount Ida, Dorchester, Nov. 1, 1861. 

My dear Sir : — 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yonr patriotic 
letter- and, if my response has been delayed beyond the ordinary 
limits 'of a prompt correspondent, I beg that you will impute the 
delav rather to my serious hesitation in complying with a request 
so frauo-ht with considerations of grave difficulty, than to any 
indifference to the momentous issues which now agitate, and 
threaten the very existence of, that beloved Union, which so long 
has been the subject of your study and deep sohcitude. 

It was my first and natural impulse to refer you to the teach- 
ino-s of men distinguished for their talents and learning in public 
affiiirs, and who were favorably known to the people as judicious 
advisers: but such a course seemed too much like an evasion ot 
dutv, to be commendable in a citizen when his country was in 
dano-er: and, whether his views were or were not deemed worthy 
of c^'onsideration, their promulgation, it was certain, could effect 
no possible harm, if it accomplished no good. I am but a stu- 
dent, deeply impressed with a lively consciousness of my mabihty 
to teach the full meaning of the eventful lessons which are daily 
permitted by an All-wise Providence; and when I communicate 
Opinions upon subjects which involve causes constituting the great 
machinery of the past and future of humanity I submit hem 
Beo ncvante, as simple endeavors to fothom the deep wells ot 
truth, to be counted only as they maybe regarded use ul aids to re- 
flection Besides, but few are ignorant of the difficulty of speak- 
in<- profitably on great topics of general interest within the com- 
pa'ss of a letter,\vhen their proper statement and elucidation 
would require a volume. A cursory view, therefore, is all that 
can be attempted. 



THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 



Conditions of National Growth. 

Intelligently to discuss tlie affairs oi- difficulties of a nation, it 
is indispensably requisite that we should first have clear and dis- 
tinct views of the conditions of national groicth. All nations 
have each their distinctive growth according to general laws, and 
every nation lias its own circle of peculiar influences, or causes, 
which must be carefully traced to their origin and understood in 
their diversified relations, even to warrant a reasonable hope of 
success in the application of remedial means for complicated or 
long-continued deranojements. 



What constitutes a Nation. 

In speaking of a nation, it is understood that we speak of a 
people of a common origin, of the same language, of "similar views, 
habits, and tastes, acting under an accepted government of their 
own. In speaking of a nation, Ave speak of a people inhabiting a 
particular territory, who, from high motives of convenzence^or 
protection, interest or advancement, have agreed to act together. 
Such an organization of society is ultimate in its chai-acter. It 
proclaims its own boundaries, defines its own prerogatives, and 
establishes its own government. Although its origin and growth 
seem to be made up of accidental, unconnected, and dissimilar 
elements, or causes, yet a more extended inquiry will discover 
the beautiful truth that all nations emanate ti-om the bosom of 
society according to great and unchangeable laws. As the vari- 
ous faculties make up the mind, or the man, so various men, or 
classes of men, make up the nation. The aggregate stands as a 
distinct ])art of creation, an element in the chemistry of civiliza- 
tion, and is to be counted a fact in history, and may be regarded 
by itself, or viewed in the successive and varied combinations devel- 
oped by its progress. The sources of its diversity are the sources 
of its comi)leteness and power; and such an organization has its 
distinct mission, and draws its nutriment from the events and 
changes of the physical and mental worlds as systematically and 
naturally as plants and trees draw nutrition from the earth. 

Nations not formed by Chance. 

A nation is no accident. The growth of a nation does not 
hai)pen by chance. The character of a nation is left to no uncer- 
tainty,^ The continuance of a nation does not depend upon hu- 
man wisdom. The age of a nation is not appointed by man. It 
is not Avithin the province of man to give existence to a nation, 
either by edict or by legislation. He i"s only a humble agent in 
the hands of his Creator tcJ aid in the great process of its d^n'elop- 
ment. He can neither make nor destroy, and yet by his means 



/c^ /- 



THE AMERICAN UNION. « 

failures are caused and successes demonstrated. Men, and asso- 
ciations of men, succeed only as they become discoverers of great 
truths, and foithfully apply them in practice. 

Subdivisions of Society and Self-Government. 

A nation is a combined system of public action, where the gen- 
eral <yood is paramount to special interests, and, like all other sys- 
temsf is dependent upon its own peculiar means of self-protection 
and outward advancement. As it is made up of multitudes ot 
intellio-ent beings, of varying races, grades, and conditions ot men, 
the mode of practical development and cooperation often becomes 
complicated, and duty a difficult problem. The subdivisions ot 
society are seen to be an obvious necessity. In no other way can 
human a^rency be made available; and hence the great variety ot 
modifications to be found under ditferent and under the same 
forms of government. Self-government is the highest form. 
" It was to obtain and preserve this inestimable blessing, as you 
remarked in a speech at a public meeting more than twenty years 
ao-o "that the good and great have struggled with every lorm 
of o'pposition in every age of the world." Its very terms assert the 
hio-hcst duty and responsibility. They not only imply the neces- 
sit'^^ of self-knowledge and a capacity of self-control, but a com- 
prehensive knowledge of wants and the best means of supplying 
them It claims the highest condition of aggregated ability, and 
the sources of control In all its parts, separately and together. 
Every man, fomilv, town, county, state, and section becomes a 
part Every class^ whether as a race or representing a particular 
cause, or interest, becomes a part ; and it is to the coiiflicts of these 
parts that we are to look for the developments of principle and tor 
the means of adjusting differences. It is the legitimate function ot 
each part first to assert itself, itself only, and then to pass to the 
next and hi<dier process of action and duty — that ot combination, 
or union of parts. Ui-on this principle the republic is based; and, 
as its o-reat power and strength come from its subdivisions ot ter- 
ritory,'' population, interests, and duties, the nicest system of 
adiustment becomes of vital importance. Neglect of any part 
to itself or of any parts to one another; any permitted inequahty, 
any iniustice whatever, whether directly designed or indirectly 
pei-mitted, would not only introduce elements of discord and cause 
positive derangement, but render national unity utterly impossible. 
"As in oro-anic beings," says Niebuhr, "the most perfect life 
is that whiciranimates the greatest variety of members, so, among 
States that is the most perfect in which a number of institutions, 
orio-inallv distinct, being organized each after its kind into centres 
of national life, form a^comj-lete whole." But, as the foundations 
of a republic are to be found in the immutable principles of jus- 
tice, practically secured by the subdivisions of society, so tHe 
superstructure is to be found in the 



THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 



Great Principle of Union, 



Union represents a great principle, inasmuch as it is a creative 
necessity. It results from the nature of things. It is the phys- 
iology of active and combined existence. Parts have a separate 
growth, a sejiarate function, that they may be preserved in their 
integrity, as it is by the perfection of the parts that the perfect 
whole is accomplished. The human body, in its highest peifection 
and beauty, depends upon the completeness of its parts. The 
same is true of all animals, and of all organized matter. Without 
union, production and progress would be impossible in every de- 
partmeiit of nature. Without union completed by the perfection 
of parts, the phenomena of nature would cease, and cause and 
effect would be disjoined, — indeed, in time the world would be- 
come a blank. The farmer would be lost for the want of a soil 
and a seed time ; the botanist and florist could have no standard 
of classification, nor vocabulary of beauty ; the inventor would 
be stopped in his discoveries, and the mechanic in his labors ; the 
mariner would lose his chart and look upon a pointless compass ; 
the surgeon would have no occasion for anatomical subjects, and 
the physician no health or unity of function to jireserve ; the 
attorney would be ]:)aralyzed by the isolations of his brief; and 
when nothing remained to be taught concerning the harmonious 
union and action of the immortal soul, the vocation of the clergy 
would cease to be found in the list of human wants. The " effu- 
sive source of evidence and truth " would be closed to the phi- 
losopher, and the sphere of beauty and sublimity to the poet ; 
the painter would become blind to all combinations of colors, and 
the musician deaf to all harmonies. Indeed, when M^e contem- 
plate the wide world, and the immeasurable world of worlds, in 
its vast and comprehensive unity, we cannot biit exclaim, in the 
language of the poet, — 

" I cannot go 
AVhere universal Love not smiles around, 
Sustaining all you orbs, and all their suns ; 
From seeming' Evil still educing- Good, 
And better thence again, and better still. 
In infinite progression." 

But this principle of union so universally marked in the vast 
scale of creation is to be found in its greatest magnitude in the 
growth of nations. What is true of the whole creation must 
be true of nations, which make only a part. Nationality com- 
prehends the conditions and relations of human activity; and 
without union, subordinated to sovereignty, national strength and 
grandeur would be impossible. To illustrate this it would be easy 
to cite numerous 

Examples from History. 

But the narrow limits oT a letter necessarily preclude more than 
a general allusion to them. Of the ancient Republics- of Greece 



/ <:^ U 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 9 

and Rome too little is known to enable the student to trace, in 
profitable detail, the sources of their varying strength or weak- 
ness, their tendencies to union or to dissolution. Their want, 
however, of a common standard of principle, of systematic 
subordination of parts, of practicable views of sovereignty, of suf- 
ficient diversity for coinjDleteness of harmony, and of broad and 
comprehensive views of individual character and of public duty, 
will show conclusively, in a general way, the elements of their 
unions and the causes of their changes and dissolutions. The 
same unvarying processes are continued during all time, but with 
new progressive elements of power. Respecting the state of 
Europe for a long period after the fall of the Roman Empire his- 
tory offers but little instruction. " In Italy, more than elsewhere," 
Avrites Sismondi, "the principle of life remained in the fi-agraents 
of the broken colossus : the Italians succumbed as a nation, but 
the component parts of their grand social union, their cities and 
towns, the first elements, in some sort, of what forms a nation, 
arose and defended themselves on their own account; every 
smaller association of men, which had survived the great one, had 
the courage to exist for itself, to feel that it had interests to pro- 
tect, sentiments above feai", and virtues that deserved success." 

If the Italian Republics were destined only to a temporary 
growth, it must be remembered that they served as schools of in- 
struction first within their own limits, until they were prepared in 
various ways to spread civilization over the rest of Europe. In the 
growth and revolutions of France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, 
indeed, of all nations that have existed and have been made 
known by history, we find the same great laws of association 
leading to strength and grandeur, and of their abrogation when 
the mission of nationality has ceased, or is in the process of change 
from a lower to a higher standard. If we turn to the primitive 
periods of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, we shall find 
all the requisite subdivisions of society so important for separate 
action and training for ultimate and efficient union. We shall 
find instructive illustrations showing how strength depends upon 
diversity, and how various and well timed are the sources of na- 
tional completeness. We shall find the principles which control 
the great process'of colonization, and which give birth and ex- 
istence to new germs of nationality in distant circles of political 
organization. We shall be led to consider, in connection, 

England and America. 

Although every nation contributes more or less to the means 
of growth of every other nation, yet, in tracing the origin of the 
institutions of America, we look more to England than to all other 
countries. There, nearly a thousand years ago, in the time of Al- 
fred, in principle, were laid the foundations of the new republic 
on the American continent. The, scale of progress, it must be 



10 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

remembered, is infinite ; and wlien avo humbly endeavor to seek out 
the indistinct sources which give origin to a nation, we find them 
scattered througli long tracts of time, though im])erfectly marked 
by the pen of history. A comprehensive survey of the |)ast, so far 
as it is possible by the aids of history, will enable us in some 
degree to understand the progressive tides of principle which pre- 
pared and established the American Union, not according to any 
plan of man, but as ordered by Infinite Wisdom. Even before 
the period of the Norman conqueror, we shall find it profitable to 
study the Anglo-Saxon character and institutions, that we may 
discover the elements of the great principles which were to be 
more fully developed by the American nation. "In the political 
system of the Saxon, royal or republican," says a distinguished 
writer,* "the danger has ever been in excess of either the cen- 
tripetal force on the one hand, or the centrifugal on the other. 
Whatever variations there may have been from time to time, this 
may, I believe, safely be pronounced the great Saxon character- 
istic — a habit of /oca? government exercised in a certain subor- 
dination, or rather relation, to a central government. And further, 
It would not be diflicult to discover in such distribution of power 
in local institutions much of the discipline, the training for more 
expanded opportunities of government, which has helped onward 
•what appears to be the destiny of the race. Observe how, after 
the Saxon occujiation of Britain, the conquered territory, small 
comparatively in extent, was divided into several petty kingdoms, 
those loosely-coni] (acted kingly commonwealths which Avere to 
form the heptarchy ; and again, how each of these was parcelled 
out into those various divisions — the counties, shires, hundreds, 
tithings, and other ])artitions, the origin of which perplexes the an- 
tiquarian. The old Saxon sjiirit of local independence and authority 
animated the local institutions, assemblies, tribunals of various 
kinds, Avith an energy that never could have been developed im- 
der a strongly controlling central poAver. When the Norman 
conqueror sought to complete the subjugation of England, by 
introducing the laws and institutions of his own country, and a 
rigorous establishment of the feudal system, all this Saxon variety 
of law, of usage, of manners, and of men, Avas a perpetual hinder- 
ance, which it Avas a part of the Conquest to do away Avith." 

"It is curious to observe," says Lord Campbell,! "that notwith- 
standing the sweeping changes of laws and institutions introduced 
at the Conquest, the characteristic diflference between the French- 
men and Englishmen, in the management of local affairs, still ex- 
ists after the lapse of 30 many centuries ; and that Avhile Avith us 
parish vestries, town councils, and county sessions are the organs 
of the petty confederated republics into Avliich England is parcelled 
ou-t, — in France, Avhether the form of government be nominally 
monarchical or republican, no one can alter the direction of a 

* Professor Henry Reed, of Pennsylvania. See Ninth IJeport of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, 
t An quoted by Professor Reed. * 



/c^V 



THE AMERICAN UNI OK. 11 

road, build a bridge, or o])en a mine, without the authority of the 
'Ministre des Fonts ct Chausst'es.' In Irehmd, there being much 
more Celtic than Anglo-Saxon blood, no self-reliance is felt, and 
a dis]>osition prevails to throw every thing upon tlie government." 

"Even with regard to metrojiolitan influences," says Professor 
Reed, " how obvious is it that London has never been to England 
what Paris lias been and is to France, whether royal, imperial, or 
republican France." It has been said by Dr. Arnold, that "cen- 
tralization and active life jiervading the whole body are hard to 
reconcile; he who should do this ])erfectly would have established a 
perfect government. * * * It seems to be a law that life cannot 
long go on in a multitude of minute parts without union, nay, even 
without something of that very centralization which yet, if not 
well watched, is so apt to destroy the parts by absorbing their life 
into its own ; there must be a heart in the political as in the natu- 
ral body to su]>ply the extremities continually with fresh blood." 

This Saxon characteristic of local institutions, taken in connec- 
tion with their diversities of character and traditional influences, 
which the assimilating processes of many centuries "have only 
smoothed down, but not altered," aflfords an instructive view of the 
elemental foundations of the 

American Union. 

These elements were to be prepared and advanced by causes 
whose processive cycle covered more than a millennial period be- 
fore they were matured for transmission and development to a 
newly-discovered continent, whose distant locality, and whose 
lines of mountains and rivers, were marked out for one people. It 
was not to be the mission of the Scandinavian iiavigators, whose 
early motives were limited to the mere spirit of discovery ; nor 
of Spain, or of Portugal, whose adventurers sought only to ad- 
vance Catholicism, or to enlarge and enrich material possessions ; 
nor of France, whose partial and temporary footliolds upon the 
continent sought only extended empire and control. Whatever 
element was fitted to make a part of the new empire, Avhenever 
and wherever generated, was saved, combiricd, advanced, and in- 
corporated with the great encircling process transferred to the 
western hemisphere. Whatever was discordant or adverse to the 
germ of republican nationality was rejected and excluded. The 
period of colonization had not been reached when Columbus 
lived, but was placed in the seventeenth century — an age charac- 
terized by high motives of individual thought, vigor, and respon- 
sibility, and by conventional developments of principle. The 
repellent process of diversity was commenced and continued un- 
der the varied forms of royal, proprietary, and chartered govern- 
ments, and at the same time constantly guarded by a centralizing 
spirit, which rather saw means of defence in proscription and ex- 
clusion, than safety in any consolidated system of control. The 



12 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

Protestant element in its diversity severed the church from the 
trammels of state, and freedom was given to religion. The an- 
tipathies between England and France were ever present to exclude 
all disturbing elements which threatened the peace and unity 
of the people, while it was the result of the English revolution 
of 1688 to harmonize the Dutch colonists with the subjects of 
the crown, when Holland gave a sovereign to Great Britain,* The 
plans of Cromwell to connect New England with. Jamaica, and 
of Franklin to link the destiny of Ireland, and of the provinces, and 
West India Islands with that of America, were rejected by an 
instinctive wisdom, too far-sighted to be less than providential. 
Royalty and democracy were poised upon an even balance, and 
watched with a sleepless vigilance. The elements of diversity 
and uniformity were guarded in separate divisions, preparatory to 
ultimate combinations, and from motives of political and religions 
duty ; and thus, in due time, the colonists were scattered to sub- 
due and control their new and extended territory. A combination 
of people, representing diiferent nations, was commenced ; each 
characterized by peculiar elements, and all uniting the indispensa- 
ble requisites for a newer and higher political organization, only 
to be found practicable on a republican basis. The humble though 
intelligent people, invested with no power above their confidence 
in God and love of freedom, were prepared to banish themselves 
from their native homes, whei'c progress had become impossible 
by accumulations of conservative opinion, to a vast and distant 
land, — fresh from the hands of the Deity, — where only barbarism 
reigned in solitary ferocity and unproductiveness, that civilization 
might follow in greater glory. They came to America represen- 
tative men, necessary to the beginning of a great nation. They 
selected for themselves each a circle and a locality, which apparently 
at first only satisfied individual preference or opinion, but which in 
the end will lead to physical unity embracing the whole continent. 
" The continent," said New Jersey to the Continental Congress, in 
1776, " should defend the continent." At early periods distinct 
colonies had marked their boundaries and established their gov- 
ernments. Each colony with an equal independence guarded its 
own rights, and claimed a separate control of its own affairs. For 
a period of a century and a half they multiplied in the midst of 
struggles and hardships, and were joined by sympathizing compan- 
ions from all climes. They were nurs^ and reared by " a wise 
and salutary neglect" of the mother country, until the germinal 
period was passed, to be succeeded by the birth of a new republic, — 

The Republic of the United States. 

The centralization of political power was looked upon by all alike 
with fearful apprehensi^^n. The principle of distinctive local gov- 

♦ Professor Eeed. 



/36 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 13 

ernment, so early favored by the Saxons, was at work within the 
narrow channels of these kindred Puritan colonies, and no adequate 
motive for an independent union had yet been presented. That 
there was an impatient jealousy of the centralizing authority of 
Massachusetts may be seen in the keen remark of the Plymouth 
agent in London to the Governor of Plymouth, in 1691, who 
thus expressed himself with evident temper : " All the frame of 
heaven moves upon one axis, and the whole of New England in- 
terest seems designed to be loaden on one bottom, and her par- 
ticular motion to be concentric to the Massachusetts tropic. You 
know who are wont to trot after the bay horse." 

What required centuries to begin took generations to mature. 
During the long period of preparation and discipline, when the 
varied elements of nationality, of the past and present, were in 
process of combination, the great principle of union was gradu- 
ally developed. The people stood forth in their native dignity, 
and began to study the laws and conditions of the society in 
which God had placed them. Separately and alike each colony 
saw its dependence upon the crown, and together the rightful 
necessity of union, which was tbe last step preceding nationality. 
" Nothing will save us," said Gadsden of South Carolina, " but act- 
ing together ; the province that endeavors to act sej^arately must 
fall with the rest, and be branded, besides, with everlasting in- 
famy." 

It is a beautiful truth, that no new assumption of power is 
permitted by Providence without a season of practical trial. Such 
a test has the double purpose of proving and adding to the 
largeness of capacity. The child was required by its mother prac- 
tically to prove its majority, and the ])roof became the source of 
pride both to the parent and the oflspring, gave new hopes to hu- 
manity, and commanded the scrutiny of an admiring world. Here 
arose a union of sovereignties, each more complete in itself, as a 
part of a great whole, than had ever existed ; each forging a 
link within a link, and all making a chain which generations and 
centuries may test and strain, but cannot break. The gradual 
formation and growth of such a union, deriving its strength and 
power from such a diversity of inexhaustible sources, becomes 
at once the subject of the deepest interest and highest importance. 
Having occasion, fourteen years ago, to speak of it, I ventured to 
use the following language : " Every true friend of liberty finds a 
siibject of congratulation in The Indissoluble Nature of the 
Union. This indissoluble combination of sovereignties of a 
gradual and similar formation is one of those extraordinary events 
of time, in which all may recognize the ruling hand of Provi- 
dence. Such a union is one of inconceivable strength and perma- 
nency. We can see the elements of its growth, but we cannot even 
predict the beginning of the causes of its decay. It is enveloped 
in almost numberless circles of sovereignty. Its heart cannot be 
reached by danger. Towns, counties, states, and their unnum- 



14 THE INDISSOLTTBLE NATTJRK OF 

bered institutions, have each their own independent sphere of 
action, and their growing and diversified strength is a perpetual 
source of power to the Union. They are limbs of the great body- 
politic. Their various modes of action, and the manifestation 
of their different views, sentiments, interests, and prejudices, 
are but the exercise necessary to their own growth, and to the 
healtliy condition of that great body of Avhich they are members. 
Its duration cannot be measured by man. The combined action 
of enemies without, and the assaults of party spirit within, can 
have no tendency but to develop new energies and to add new 
strength. It may rise in its grandeur and might for centuries to 
come ; liave its periods of growth and decay, its blessings and its 
troubles ; but its changes can only be those of progress. Disso- 
lution may be discussed, threatened, and, possibly, even attempted ; 
but every discussion will increase the knowledge of the indis- 
pensable necessity of union, every threat will add to the zeal of 
its friends, and every attempt to subvert it will create new safe- 
guards for its protection and perpetuity. The physical Avorld in 
its variety, and the mental world in its unity, encircle its bounda- 
ries and centi-alize its interests. The dissolution of such a 

UNIOX IS A MORAL IMPOSSIBILITY."* 

Subsequent studies have only strengthened and confirmed the 
opinions which were then formed, and I look upon the govei-nment 
of the United States of America, under the Constitution, as the 

STRONGEST AND MOST LIKELY TO BE PERMANENT OF ANY UPON 

THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Its testing vicissitudcs Open new 
avenues to truth, and add new means to experience. The sad and 
calamitous war w^hich now threatens the ruin of the material in- 
terests of the people, and to embitter tiieir future intercourse, 
painful and destructive as it is and must be, does not warrant 
desponding conclusions in the mind of the Christian patriot. 
When viewed with a patient and dispassionate judgment, and 
taken in connection with the events of the past, the Avants of the 
future, and the renovating forces of progress, we find new and 
consoling evidence that our beloved country is destined to a con- 
tinued advancement in power and responsibility, and according 
to those great and eternal laws of growth which give shape and 
vitality to all nations appointed to stand as beacons to a benighted 
world. It would be inconsistent with the unchangeable laws of 
progress, and with our acquired knowl(*Llge of things, to look for 
special exemptions from the conditions of humanity ; or to sup- 
pose that our people are above the discipline so necessary to the 
wise' use of knowledge, the control of passion, the rebuke of self- 
ishness, the avoidance of error incident to pride and apathy, to 
the development of virtue and integrity, and above all, to that 
Christian patriotism, wluch, though extensively professed, is la- 
mentably neglected, and to many even unknown. 

• The Republic of the United States, &c., 1848. 



sc, 



the american union. 15 

National Progress, Causes of Disunion. 

The progress of our country has been truly wonderful and un- 
exampled. The foresight and wisdom of our fathers in the estab- 
lishment of a government so proper, so simple, efficient, and just; 
the enterprise and industry of the people in creating for them- 
selves a thriving business and happy homes ; the cultivation of 
good will at home and abroad, and the realization of civil and 
religious libei'ty, — embracing all the privileges which tend to 
make existence noble, happy, and successful, — are among the 
countless blessings, which, like sunshine and rain, have been com- 
bined and dispensed so constantly and bountifully, by a God of 
love, to the American people, that they had almost begun impi- 
ously to think that Omnipotence waited upon their will alone, and 
had ceased to be an attribute of Jehovah ! Liberty was loved 
better than understood. Prosperity had blinded the people to 
the great sources of success, the conditions of duty ; and they had 
become arrogantly indifferent to the relations of dependence i;pon 
divine aid. Humility gave way to self-conceit; and fanaticism, 
clothed and disguised in the habiliments of charity, sought to 
compete with Providence in furnishing improved means of human 
progress. For the period of an entire generation a small por- 
tion of the people of New England, and of the free States, have 
constantly denounced the Constitution of our lathers as "a cove- 
nant with death and an agreement with hell," and have asked for 
a dissolution of the Union ; they have stigmatized their southern 
brethren with dishonoring epithets, and, directly or indirectly, 
stolen their servants ; they have encouraged nullification of laws 
when not in conformity to their views, and the enactment of un- 
constitutional laws when and where they could control ; they have 
instigated rebellion and armed invasion, and they have honored the 
head of treason with the crown of martyrdom ; they have made the 
churches the arena of vulgar doubt and political strife, and they 
have encouraged their religious teachers to prostitute their calling 
by raising the standard of party above that of the cross ; they have 
resorted to fiction and misrepresentation, to inordinate zeal and 
mistaken philanthropy, and thus have scattered the seeds of disloy- 
alty, sedition, and insurrection, and although claiming for themselves 
the prerogatives of conscience, they have denied them to others ; 
they have endeavored to degrade the government by ignominious 
terms when faithful to the Constitution, and they have taught their 
children, and influenced their dependants and neighbors, to regard 
the observance of the Sabbath day of freedom as a sin, so long 
as their unconstitutional requisitions were rejected as impractica- 
ble ; and, instead of scrutinizing themselves and inculcating a 
Christian charity, they have sought to control the opinions and 
business of othei's with an arrogant claim to infallibility, denying 
to men and to States equal rights and constitutional freedom. It 
is well known that the class holding to these ultra views is not 



16 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

numerous, and,were it not that they have been aided and encouraged 
by others, of whose motives God alone can judge, would have been 
powerless. In giving these brief details I have endeavored faith- 
fully to cite from the record. It is my pui'pose, in this connection, 
only to enumerate the many abuses and neglects, by citizens of all 
classes and of all parties, of the great privileges which they have 
so long enjoyed under the protecting power of the Union. 

State governments have long been guilty of ignorance and gi-oss 
neglect in not giving their time and attention to the importance 
of military organizations. The military has often been denom- 
inated as an obsolete institution, even barbarous and useless, un- 
suited to the character of the age, or to the wants of humanity. 
Its officers have been slighted and ridiculed as vain idlers, without 
high motives; its friends have been jeered and characterized as 
mere lovers of parade, and its trappings condemned as unmeaning 
gewgaws to trick distinction and outward show. Citizens of all 
classes, conditions, and degrees of respectability have deemed it 
meritorious and fashionable to decline office, to evade a citizen's 
responsibility, to depreciate officials, to sneer at government and 
political parties, to decline discussion of subjects concerning the 
public good, and to neglect the ballot box ; to regard their own 
business as paramount to that of the nation, and to dis])arage 
the rejoicings and festivities designed to mark and celebrate 
great events as incentives to principle and patriotism. Some, 
who have been overtaken by the calamitous results of their own 
selfishness and apathy, have impatiently wished to see a chief 
magistrate appointed for life, or dui-ing good behavior; while 
others, forgetting their fathers, and urged by ungrateful impulses, 
and blinded by a heartless pride, have even invoked the presence 
of deposed royalty ! The number of such men is small ; but the 
fact that there are any such has an instructive significance in a 
general survey of causes which tend to anarchy and disunion. It 
is, indeed, humiliating to be obliged to confess the prevalence of 
a grumbling and ungrateful spirit, the national sins of ignorance 
and indifference, and an obvious disposition on the part of many 
to claim all and control all with too little regard to the rights of 
the people, and to the equal rights of the States. All profess to 
be proud of what the country has been and done ; and yet how 
many are ungratefully insensible to those to whose foresight, 
wisdom, and labors they are indebted for its achievements and 
prosperity. Our brethren, too, of 

The Southern States 

are called upon to review their record, and to correct their errors. 
Placed in a different locality and climate, and burdened with an 
inferior race to provide for, they have succeeded admirably in 
systematizing an industry adapted to their capacity, and which 
has proved to be of the utmost importance both to the nation and 



/<^7 



THB AMERICAN UNION. 



to the world. The demands of barbarism became linked with the 
wants of civilization, and the rude sons of Africa were placed in 
Christian society. If the African race is to be saved and elevated, 
the great fact will be demonstrated in the Southern States of 
America. The flithers of New England, more than a century and 
a half ago, dismissed the problem of their capacity for freedom 
when they enacted laws in Connecticut and Massachusetts that 
their emancipation could not be permitted without bonds of secu- 
rity from their masters, in the sura of fifty pounds, that they 
should not become the source of expense to the towns where they 
were held. A race wanting in capacity rises only as it is helped. 
To be placed in competition with a superior is its death. Feeble- 
minded indigent white men and women are provided for by law 
during life. This is deemed a Christian necessity in all civilized 
nations. Slavery, as such, is favored by no one, nor is it created 
and established by legislation. It is an inequality of condition, or 
evil, found by civilization, and all nations are required by the 
commands of Christianity to regulate it with motives to paternal 
guardianship. A people capable of freedom cannot be enslaved, 
and an incapable people cannot be made free. Slavery was nom- 
inally abolished, long ago, in Mexico ; but the smallest debt legally 
holds the spiritless Mexican in permanent servitude. Hundreds 
of millions of human beings are yet to be reached by Christianity, 
and rescued from ignorance, heathenism, cannibalism, barbarism ; 
and this great duty can be accomplished only by slow degrees, 
and according to the measure of means of civilized nations. 
Servitude is a condition incident to humanity. No people have 
been exempted from its momentous requisitions, no age has been 
spared from the heavy burdens which it ever imposes upon society 
where it prevails. South Carolina was the first colony to protest 
against it to the king, but royalty then permitted no colonial discre- 
tion. In August, 1 774, North Carolina passed a resolution, " That we 
will not import any slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves 
imported or brought into 'this province by others, from any part 
of the woi'ld, after the first day of November next." 

The slavery of Africa overshadows freedom, and slavery there 
is a perpetual condition, without the hope of improvement from 
internal means ; while slavery in the United States (or rather a 
system of servitude) is, or should be, a condition of progress, a 
state of pupilage in the school of Christianity. The hero who is 
to carry the blessings of Christianity to Africa has already his 
pioneers in Liberia, and, when the proper time arrives, will find 
his capable followers in the Southern States of America. 

With respect to the subject of extending slavery, it is to be ob- 
served that the great truths of democracy are not of a territorial 
nature, but moral. Practical views upon this subject were ex- 
pressed by Jefterson, in a letter to Lafayette, in 1820. Speaking 
of the Missouri Compromise question, he says, " It is not a moral 
question, but one merely of power. Its object is to raise a geo- 



18 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

graphical principle for the choice of a president ; and the noise 
will be kept up till that is eifected. All know that ])ermitting 
the slaves of the South to spread into the West will not add one 
being to that unfortunate condition ; that it will increase the 
happiness of those existing, and, by spreading them over a larger 
surface, will dilute the evil every where, and facilitate the means 
of getting finally rid of it — an event more anxiously wished by 
those on whom it presses than by the noisy pretenders to ex- 
clusive humanity." 

The magnitude of this subject cannot be over-estimated ; and 
when considered in its diversified relations, it will be found to be 
a cause above and beyond the appointment of man entirely to 
control, or to adjust with misguided hopes of finality. 

But, while this form of servitude may be considered as friendly 
to the African, and benevolently suited to develop his naturally 
lympliatic constitution, and to relieve his condition of ignorance, 
it must not be regarded an element of nationality. It is inciden- 
tal only to the great sources of national groAVth and completeness. 
Properly speaking, it is neither sectional nor national. It is a 
conditional attribute of humanity, necessary, it may be, to unfold 
and to establish, by comparison and appreciation, the progressive 
means of freedom. The American Union can be perpetuated 
only on the ground of equality, and any deviation from this 
standard is an inevitable tendency to disunion. Entire equality 
— nominal, moral, political, and industrial equality — is an indis- 
pensable condition of perpetual union. This condition of equality 
has been too much neglected by all of the States. Although the 
industry of the North and South is largely and reciprocally ad- 
vantageous, yet the South has employed too much the opera- 
tives of the North to be true to itself It has relied too much 
upon the shops and the mills, upon the schools and institutions of 
New England, These, in a greater degree, the Southern States 
want in their own midst, — so that all the elements of character 
may be found where their influence is most needed. Means of 
progress cannot be borrowed by the people of a commonwealth ; 
they cannot be purchased, — they must make a part of it. Eacli 
State has its own heart, and it must grow its own blood, and ha^e 
its own veins and arteries. South Carolina can best take care of 
herself when her sister States are true to themselves. What is 
true of one is true of all. State sovereignty comprehends all du- 
ties to the Union, and all duties to itself as a distinct part of the 
Union, Without State sovereignty permanent union would be 
impossible, from the want of an adequate basis. Without union 
State rights would be impossible, from the want of elements of 
national growth and defence. The Union constitutes a part of 
every State, and every State a part of the Union, and the means 
of preserving each are .to be found in unreserved duty to each 
State in accordance witli reserved rights, and to the Union accord- 
ing to the Constitution. The laws of the Southern States which 



/S'^ 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 19 

prohibit the education of the slaves, which imprison colored sea- 
men visiting their ports, or which are merely retaliatory on 
abolitionists, not only tend to disunion, but. to weaken the means 
of protecting the rights of tlie States. By such measures they 
have done injustice to themselves, and have added to the frenzied 
zeal of the abolitionist. Abolitionists have lived in all ages, and 
their varied missions will not be exhausted while the work of 
progress remains unfinished. If understood, they are not to be 
feared. When noticed most, they succeed best. They are pioneers, 
not settlers. They take but little part in the practical business of 
society. Like the Daniel Boones, if reached by society to-day, they 
will be found to-morrow beyond its limits , still exploring the wil- 
derness. 

The presence of the African upon this continent leads to the 
discussion of freedom to an extent, and in a manner, that would 
have been impossible if he had remained with his fathers. All 
nations, particularly republics, require exercise, as much as men 
' and animals, to secure the highest conditions of health and vigor; 
and without the presence of an inferior race, having no nation, 
no home, but that of barbarism, we should have no special occa- 
sion either to look at the necessity of servitude, or to study the 
conditions of freedom. This grand exercise, thus providentially 
imjiosed upon us by a God who has commanded duties to the 
heathen, will result in knowledge of the great principles of liberty, 
and add strength to the American Union. 

Thus far it has been the mission of the abolitionist, in America, 
— I say it with no motive to disparagement, — to elicit discussion, 
and to ]»revent the too sudden freedom of the slave. To prove this 
it is only necessary to look at the history of the emancipation move- 
ments in Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland. If the abolitionist 
succeeds, his siicccss will be the removal or the end of the African 
race. Successful emancipation is a domestic result, — and it cannot 
be accomplished by measures of external force. Besides, it would 
be, as a remedy for existing evils, in violation of the Constitution. 
It would divide the north, justify the south, paralyze ihe govern- 
ment, and prove destructive to the great industrial interests of the 
nation. But it is not our purpose so much to speak of remedies 
as to discover principles. By asking too much the abolitionist has 
accomplished nothing according to his own wishes ; and for others 
he has instigated a practical inquiry, aided by the horrors of rev- 
olution, that will end in additioiv>l strength both to the Southern 
States and to our glorious Union. Not by force alone, but by se- 
curing that practical unity, " which results," to use the language 
of Guizot, "not from the identity of government and destiny, but 
from the similarity of institutions, manners, ideas, sentiments, lan- 
guages ; the unity which resides in the men themselves, whom the 
society unites together, and not in the forms of their junction ; 
moral unity, in point of fact, far su])erior to political unity, and 
which alone can give it a solid foundation." 



20 the indissoluble nature op 

Pkogeessive Periods of Union. 

In progress there are two alternating processes of growth, pro- 
gressive and conservative ; an advance and then a pause for con- 
solidation and maturity, preparatory to another step. In the 
growth of all nations these distinctive periods may be seen, and 
it is to be regretted that historians have neglected to note them 
with a profitable accuracy. Some of the principal periods of pro- 
gressive union, in America, as conventionally made known, and 
which, with profit, may be noted by the' student, are, 1643, 1690, 
1743, 1754, 1763, 1774, 1787, 1800, 1812, 1820, 1832, 1844, 1850, and 
1860, embracing conflicts developing the multiplying conditions 
necessary to actual conventional existence, — enlargement, defence, 
support, protection of persons and property, the enjoyment of 
equal rights and religious freedom, the security of State rights 
and of the Union, the broad enforcement of duty and of national 
control, both at home and abroad. The gradual development of 
these advancing conditions may be seen in the events of an 
inci-easing responsibility, in new wants which arose with an aug- 
menting population, and in new necessities which were created 
by accumulating diversities. Every new step of advancement 
has been preceded by a declaration of principles, and followed 
by dissent and discussion, — an exercise indispensably necessary 
to the condition of a free people. Disunion was threatened as 
early as 1650, and with but little visible cessation to the present 
time, — though urged with different motives, and connected with 
different circumstances. Union was alternately favored and de- 
nounced by the Crown and by the colonies, by the Parliament and 
by the people, and always according to supposed rights or inter- 
ests of royalty or democracy. If we turn to the history of this 
progressive principle in America, we shall find its accumulating 
tendencies all converging to a higher and to a stronger union. It 
not only rejects all elements of a nature incompatible with per- 
fect and ultimate unity, but, by challenged controversy, renders 
the development of truth and strength an unavoidable result. 
From these considerations we are naturally led to inquire con- 
cerning 

The Mission of Secession. 

Incidental to these periods of. conventional union we find the 
process of secession. The office of secession may be denominated 
the Providential means of developing great and practical truths 
necessary to the advancement of society, and to the government 
of nations. It is antagonistic to the principle of union. It claims 
division of territoiy, population, and interests, on supposed grounds 
of general good. Sectional interests and diversities of character 
are looked "upon as incompatible with unity, and adverse to the 
obvious means of success and prosperity. It is asserted as a right 



/s^ 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 21 

based upon the attributes of justice, and as a remedy for existing 
evils incident to consolidation. When asserted in conformity to 
the principles of progress, whether by consent or by revolution, it 
is successful. When asserted against progress, in the nature of 
things, it is impossible. All such attempts serve to illustrate the 
greater wants of humanity, and ultimately to provide for them. 
They tend to establish more fully and more firmly the legitimate 
means of progress, which, in vain, secession endeavors to subvert 
or destroy. Secession is no new doctrine ; its claims have been 
asserted in all nations, during all time, and with uniform results, 
and in harmony with fundamental laws which can neither be mod- 
ified nor repealed. 

When colonies become sufficiently prepared for nationality, their 
secession from the parent government is a natural process, and can- 
not be prevented. If attended with circumstances of revolution, 
it will be found that they were necessary to success. A people 
leaving an old centre of organized activity, and seeking to estab- 
lish a new one, needs the process of consolidation, that the parts 
may be joined in new relations, and the resulting union under- 
stood, A. new sphere has been created, a new standard erected, 
a new government organized. All eyes are necessarily turned to 
the requisitions of the new standard, all hearts are required to 
beat in harmony with the pulsations of the new centre of national 
life, and all attacks from without help to develop the means of 
defence and advancement within. At no time have these jirin- 
ciples been more fully demonstrated than at the period -of the 
American revolution. All ultimate results of success,'it must be 
remembered, are founded upon the immutable principles of justice. 
By demanding too much. Great Britain ceased to be a true guai*- 
dian, and the colonies asserted the control of their own resources, 
and became a nation. By unlawfully attempting to subjugate the 
colonies, the government of Great Britain severed the ties of kin- 
dred and friendship, developed American character, and estab- 
lished the American Union. Without the external pressure of 
the war of Great Britain against the colonies, their independence 
could not have been achieved. Small in number, scattered over 
a vast continent, and without ready means to overcome obstacles 
of distance, or to meet in council, and having no interests in com- 
mon but those of freedom, the colonists were without sufficient 
motives to unite upon a central policy, except for defence against 
a stronger force without, when union became a necessity. 
Hence, the war of Great Britain against the colonies, however 
characterized by the desolations of injustice and deadly strife, 
became the "scourge of men's iniquity," and the fearful instru- 
ment by which the new republic was to open its vast resources of 
material power and mental vigor. By the force of invasive war, 
men became invested with the responsibilities of citizenship, and 
slowly discovered the dread necessities of national existence. 
Each home was newly hallowed by the family, each colony by 



22 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

the recital of its rights, and the continent by unfolding the Flag 
of the Union, — all were made more sacred, and guarded with 
more Adgilance, by the presence of merciless war. By war the 
nation was made to stand alone. 

Just after the declaration of peace, and at subsequent jieriods, 
the question of secession came up, as between a State and a por- 
tion of the State, and between a State and the Federal Gov- 
ernment. The weakness of the first confederation was so obvious 
that no remedy was seen by many but by a division of the Union 
into two or three confederacies; and, by diversities of interest 
and opinion, several of the larger States were in danger of being 
reduced to fragments. Even after the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion a portion of the States were slow to discover their own weak- 
ness, or to appreciate the value of a national government. Most 
of the States had their divisions, in endeavors to improve their 
governmental macliinery, and some of th^n saw no safety but in 
themselves. John Hancock and the legislature of Massachusetts, 
in 1789, regarded the dignity of the governor of the Common- 
wealth, within its own boundaries, as above that of Washington, 
as President, and the interests of the State as paramount to those 
of the Union. North Carolina, for a season, was "an exile." 
Rhode Island was so perverse that it was hoped that she would 
be excluded, and her " territory divided between her neighbors ; " 
Vermont, (from 1777 to 1790,) surrounded by powerful claimants, 
and distracted by divided counsels and conflicting interests, nobly 
asserted her sovereignty and independence, while she neutralized 
the hostile threats of Congress by negotiations with Great Brit- 
ain ; and as late as 1794, Kentucky had "a powerful faction for 
placing that country under the protection of the Britisli govern- 
ment, and separating from the union of the States." When the 
question of the admission of Louisiana was under discussion in 
Congress, a distinguished member, from Massachusetts, opposed 
the measure, in strong language, — for which he was rebuked by 
Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi. He said, " I am compelled to 
declare it as my deliberate opinion, that, if this bill passes, the 
bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved ; that the States which 
compose it are free from their moral obligations, and that, as it 
will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare 
definitely for separation, — amicably if they can, violently if they 
must." 

It was not till 1812 that the American nation was required to 
strengthen its external relations with foreign powers, by asserting 
its sovereignty and nationality against the aggressive acts of 
England. This was called by Jefierson the necessary hooping of 
the nation. It was then that the doctrine of secession was pro- 
mulgated by prominent men of New England, and the right to 
make a separate peace with England, and to establish a New Eng- 
land confederacy, was openly declared and defended. A few of 
the surviving royalists of the revolution, still clinging to theories 



THE AMERICAN UNION". 23 

favorable to the return of a monarchical government, did not 
hesitate to encourage secession as a disorganizing process neces- 
sary to the realization of their wishes. Flags of five stripes were 
displayed as representing what was derisively called the " King- 
dom of New England." States were influenced by executive 
authority to oppose the measures of the Fedei'al government, and 
conventions were called to meet in secret conclave, not to coop- 
erate with the President in prosecuting the war, but to denounce 
and oppose it with bitterness and misrepresentation. " Let no 
considerations whatever, my brethren," said an eminent divine of 
Boston, "deter you at all times, and in all places, from execrating 
the present war. As Mr. Madison has declared war, let Mi\ Mad- 
ison carry it on. The Union has been long since virtually dissolved, 
and it is full time that this part of the Disunited States should take 
care of itself." Other clergymen were equally violent. The con- 
trol of the troops was denied to the Federal authority, prisons 
were closed against the executive of the Union, loans were re- 
fused by capitalists and banks under dishonoring threats, and 
])etty embarrassments were multiplied in every possible way to 
discourage and weaken the government by partisans who had not 
sufficient foresight to appreciate its policy, or patriotism to sub- 
mit to sacrifices necessary to sustain the dignity of the nation. 

It is an interesting truth to be noted, that while some of the 
most gifted sons of New England, with high and patriotic mo- 
tives, entertained impracticable opinions, the mass of the people 
were true to their country according to the measure of their in- 
formation. When fully informed, the people not only correct 
their own errors, but rebuke their mistaken leaders. What was 
then true of the North will be found true of the South. When 
the people of the Southern States are made fully aware of the 
terrible dangers of secession, they will act as one man, and turn 
from them with permanent aversion. 

In 1820, the admission of Missouri became an important ques- 
tion as connected with the Union. "This momentous question," 
said Jefferson, " like a fire-bell in the night, nwakened and filled 
me with terror, I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. 
It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, 
not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked 
principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the 
angry passions of men, will never be obliterated ; and every new 
irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." Washington saw the 
dangers of such a conflict, and uttered his prophetic warning; but 
fanaticism disdains to regard either the counsels of wisdom or of 
ex} erience. When Texas was annexed, and warwas made against 
Mexico; when the "compromise measures" of 1850 were passed, 
partisans and States saw destruction in progress, and safety in dis- 
union. Indeed, disunion has always been the cry of desperate men 
and parties, when not successful, in terrorem / and this enduring 
fact affords conclusive evidence that no greater evil is deemed 
possible to the nation. 



24 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

As the election of Abraham Lincohi to the presidency was in 
strict conformity to the requisitions of the Constitution, and as 
the seceding States have not preferred charges of Adolated faith 
against the Federal government itself, it follows that secession 
is claimed either as a constitutional right, and as consistent with 
State sovereignty, or as a necessary remedy against great evils 
too intolerable to be borne, and therefore justifying revolution. 
First, let us consider 

Secession as a Constitutional Right. 

To judge accurately of a constitutional right, we should look 
not only to the plain provisions of the Constitution itself" but to 
the meaning of the events which preceded its formation — the 
germinating elements of its origin. Without adverting to the 
teachings of the various unions illustrative of the progress of the 
republic, we will only refer to the Declaration of Independence, 
and to subsequent events immediately preceding the period when 
the Constitution was adopted. 

In the Declaration of Independence the fundamental principles 
of freedom and constitutional rights were asserted, and upon this 
broad basis legitimate claims for justice were made, against long 
and permanent abuses and grievances, which were formally enu- 
merated and plainly set forth as sufficiently justifying, before the 
world, a revolutionary appeal to arms. In this document two great 
facts are recorded, important to be noted and remembered. 

1st, A recognition of national sovereignty in the British Crown 
anterior to the time of the convention which made the Declara- 
tion ; and, 

2d, The transfer of that sovereignty to the joint authority of 
the colonies, in convention assembled by the voice of the people, as 
States, which, when united under a Constitution, represented the 
same prerogatives of which the Crown had been divested. 

By this statement it will be seen that to the colonial system, 
the revolution added a new element to be defined and systematized, 
and that was national sovereignty. The prerogatives of royalty 
were taken from the prince, and placed in the keeping of the people. 
It then became the study of the fathers of the new repubUc so 
to control this additional element that each State should preserve 
its own political identity, and that all should stand in relation to 
it as equals. As the States widely varied in population, industry, 
and interests, it became a difficult problem so to concentrate this 
newly-acquired sovereignty as to establish a Union based upon 
conditions of practical equality. The Union became the execu- 
tive of the people, and it was authorized to exercise this newly- 
acquired power, and to control such other agencies, as the people, 
by convention, should deejn expedient or important. The com- 
plex nature of a sovereignly authorized and shared by independent 
States is not readily defined, particularly by representatives of 



//// 



THE AMERICAN UNIOX. 25 

States, who constantly fear reserving too little, or concet^ing too 
much. That these representatives were caro.ful and conservative, 
may be seen in all the 

Discussions upon the Constitution. 

From Xoveraber 1777 to July 1778 the first plan of the Confed- 
eration was formed, and eight States had assented to it, although 
wuth many and conflicting objections. Discussions were con- 
tinued upon it till March, 1781,. when all the States but Rhode 
Island had substantially ratified it, though with reserved and re- 
luctant modifications. The grave and formal objections set forth 
by the assembly of Rhode Island were duly answered, and with 
much ability, by a committee of Congress, consisting of Messrs. 
Madison, Hamilton, and Fitzsimmons. But, while this committee 
labored to show that Rhode Island was wrong, in part, it was 
practically found by the people and Congress, that the plan, as a 
whole, was inadequate to meet the emergencies of the crisis. 
The country was without revenue or credit, and its foreign trade 
without control. The wants of the army were neglected, and 
permitted to accumulate with new aggravations, and creditors be- 
came clamorous for the payment of their claims. Government 
was distracted by counsels emanating alike from extreme motives 
of selfishness and of patriotism, and the people were in a despond- 
ing mood, all asking protective action, and but few manifesting a 
practical spirit of compromise. From 1781 to 1787, Congress, 
again and again, proposed modified plans of union, and States as 
often reported upon them differently and with no common agree- 
ment. Some approved in part, some offered substitutes, some 
despaired of agreement, or neglected to act, while others acted 
partially or conditionally. Some favored temporai-y experiments, 
some proposed perpetual arrangements, and others a subdivided 
authority, or an undivided sovereignty. This long period of discus- 
sion was also a pei-iod of trial. Measures were practically tested 
before they were fully or finally adopted. Doubts were removed 
by actual tests, and ascertained weaknesses remedied by additional 
j)rovisions of efficiency. Step by step the wants of the people, 
and of the nation, were noted, measui^s were gradually adjusted 
to meet them, and by degrees the States found by actual experi- 
ment the necessity of investing the Union with all those elements 
of power which constitute nationality. In these discussions it 
will be seen that from the smallest to the greatest concessions of 
power, the States Avere eminently conservative, yielding nothing 
to the federal government that could be consistently withheld. 
They began with weakness, and only consented to additional power 
as it became an imperative necessity. There seemed to be but 
one motive and one wish, and that was, to render the Union per- 
fect and efficient, and wdth no particle of excess of power, thus 
combining a careful judgment with an actual experience. In 



26 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATUEE OF 

these discussions, from first to last, great principles were recog- 
nized, which favored the efficiency and perpetuity of the Union, 
and excluded the possibility of weakness or secession. The con- 
dition of things, at this period, may be inferred from the language 
of Washington, in a letter to a member of Congress dated 1780. 
" I see," said he, " one head gradually changing into thirteen. I 
see one army branching into thirteen, which, instead of looking 
up to Congress as the supreme controlling power of the United 
States, are considering themselves as dependent on their respec- 
tive States. I am fearful of the consequences." " Before this 
Constitution was adopted," says Mr. Webster, " the United States 
had already been in a union, more or less close for fifteen years." 
He might have said with truth, more or less close for nearly a 
century and a half In speaking of the aversion of many to the 
Constitution, Patrick Henry said, "A government without the 
affections of the people can be neither durable nor happy. But, 
Sir, I mean not to breathe the spirit nor utter the language of 
secession." 

As no provision is made for secession in the body of the Con- 
stitution itself, — an indispensable provision if secession had been 
intended — it should seem to be almost an act of supererogation to 
refute a doctrine not any where stated in terms. I am led to be- 
lieve that it is neither warranted by the Constitution, nor by any 
collateral evidence to be found in the events or circumstances of 
its adoption. Besides, it would be inconsistent with those known 
laws of growth which lead to legitimate progress and unity. 
Even Calhoun did not countenance secession except as a remedial 
measure against an " act of the federal government unauthorized 
by the Constitution." There is much force in the remarks of the 
Duke of Argyle, in a recent speech upon American attairs, and he 
furnishes a most apt illustration of the peculiar, process of seces- 
sion. He said, " I do not care whether we look at it from the 
Northern or from the Southern point of view. Take the mere 
question of what is called the right of secession. I knoAV of no 
government in the Avorld which could possibly have admitted the 
right of secession from its own allegiance. There is a curious 
animal in Lochfyne, which I have sometimes dredged up from the 
bottom of the sea, and which performs the most extraordinary 
and unaccountable acts of suicide and self-destruction. It is a 
peculiar kind of star-fish, which, when brought up from the bottom 
of the water, and when any attem])t is made to take hold of it, 
immediately throws off all its arms, its very centre breaks up, and 
nothing remains of one of the most beautiful forms in nature but 
a thousand wriggling fragments." 

To admit of the right of secession, under a constitution, is pro- 
jected dissolution, and in violation of well-known axioms of phi- 
losophy, which join caits'e and effect, and count the whole greater 
than a part. If secession is not warranted by the Constitution, it 
remainsito be seen if it can be defended upon the grounds of revo- 
lution. 



the american union. 27 

Revolution. 

Revolution is defensible only as it protects the people in tlieir 
legitimate rights against a tyranny. To rebel against the gov- 
ernment merely with a view to control its measures, is like ampu- 
tating a limb that it may be cured of an injury. To resort to 
revolution to remedy trifling evils, is as wise at it would be to 
destroy the body to eradicate incipient disease. That the Southern 
States had no occasion to resort to desperate remedies may be seen 
from the conservative vote of the people for President. The con- 
servative vote was 2,804,570, and for the Republican candidate only 
1,857,610, showing a difference of nearly a million voters against 
the party now in authority. Differences of oj;inion furnish no 
occasion for revolution ; for by freedom of discussion a people be- 
come informed and a government improved. 

All citizens owe dutiful allegiance to their ow^n government : 
if it be in danger, to defend it; if it be weak, to strengthen it; 
if it be inadequate, to enlarge it ; if it be wrong, to right it. Any 
course of a party not in harmony with these motives is adverse 
both to private interests and the public good. True patriotism is 
patient to know its own and to defend it, until nothing remains 
to be defended. It then becomes the mission of revolution to 
regain what has been lost. 

Conceding as true all that the Southern States have charged 
{igainst the Republican party, and the apologists of John Brown, 
a resort to revolutionary measures affords not only no remedy 
against the evils of which they comj>lain, but it inevitably multi- 
plies and aggravates them. That secession was not intended as an 
ordinary remedy for ordinary abuses, may be inferred from the 
fact that no such process was authorized, and the amending power 
was jjlainly provided in the Constitution as a rule for the adjust- 
ment of differences. The amending power, says Calhoun, "is, 
when properly understood, the vis tnedicatrix of the system ; its 
great repairing, healing, and conservative power; intended to 
remedy its disorders, in whatever cause or causes originating; 
whether in the original errors or defects of the Constitution itself, 
or in the operation of time and change of circumstances, or in 
conflicts between its parts, including those between the coordinate 
governments." 

The States are not only entitled to the benefit of their oAvn 
constitutional means to remedy existing evils, but they have a 
constitutional claim upon the Fedei-al government for active 
cooperation in promptly adopting whatever measm-es may be 
necessary for the general welfare and peace of the country. 
Having for their standard the Constitution of the United States, 
it is their high prerogative to command the full benefit of the 
authority of the Union. Indeed, there is no power adequate 
to afford relief except that to be found in the Union ; and that 
will always be found reliable if time be given for the formation 



!:» THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

of public opinion and for its corrective application. Separate 
confederacies established on secession foundations Avould have 
within them the sure elements of their own dissolution, and do- 
mestic evils would be converted into external and hopeless em- 
barrassments. What is now regulated by a Constitution, with a 
great diversity of views, all promotive of a common interest, a 
common good, would have to be controlled and regulated by 
treaties, where the relations of interest and of a general welfare 
would have their extent narrowed and limited to their respective 
nationalties. The philanthropist would recognize no geogi'aphicai 
boundary to humanity, and would extend his active benevolence 
to all lands where men were found in bondage, or where souls 
were to be saved. That fanatics would follow them hardly need 
be stated. Whether we have one or four nations, the continent 
remains, as before, marked by its mountains, rivers, and highways, 
and the people inhabiting it are still together as neighbors, and 
linked with great interests, which stand upon the same localities, 
and would liave to be operated by means engendeited in common, 
and worked by men of the same society. Fugitives from labor 
would have no greater distance to run, to be freed from their mas- 
ters, and the same opportunities for aid would remain to be ex- 
tended by their zealous sympathizers. What is now protected 
by constitutional law would then become free from conventional 
control, and the busy abolitionists would have no special occa- 
sion to seek for an apology to work for a principle where citizen- 
ship imposed upon them no restraints, Present evils, which are 
special, would be magnified by new relations of importance, and 
aggravated by litigious complications. The Southern States 
would lessen their resources, increase their burdens, and cripple 
their means of national advancement. The Northern would be- 
come more impracticable by concentrating within narrower limits 
the deluding results of a fanatical frenzy, and lose much both in 
interest and character by lessening their intercourse with intelli- 
gent communities, whose people would strive to direct their influ- 
ence to a new centre. The whole country would be deprived of 
important elements which tend to a continental unity, and the 
subdivisions of territory, connected with inefficient and varying 
schemes of government, would lead to results too insignificant to 
protect the citizen at home, and too inadequate to command re- 
spect abroad. Separation would only illustrate a sad condition 
of weakness and anarchy, and demonstrate the imperative neces- 
sity of a speedy return to union. 

In a recent speech of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, he said, 
" That separation between Northern and Southern States, in 
America, which is now being brought about by civil war, I have 
long foreseen, and foretold to be inevitable ; and I venture to pre- 
dict that the younger Kien here will live to see not two, but at 
least four, and probably more than four, separate and sovereign 
commonwealths arising out of those populations which a year ago 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 29 

united the legislature under one president, and carried their mer- 
chandise under a single flag. And so far from thinking that these 
separations will be injurious to the future destinies of America, or 
inflict a blow on that grand principle of self-government in which 
the substance of liberty consists, I believe that such separations 
will be attended with happy results to the safety of Europe and 
the development of American civilization." 

That Sir Edward speaks with sincerity and with no unfriendly 
motive, I have no reason to doubt. He is a gentleman of great 
learning and much philosophy; and it is a gratifying privilege to 
place his testimony upon record in favor of self-government. If, 
however, he has been correctly reported, he has done himself in- 
justice by venturing to utter opinions unaccompanied by informa- 
tion safiicient for their basis. He certainly cannot be ignorant of 
the important political events which led President Monroe, in 
1823, "to declare that we should consider any attempt on the 
part of the allied powers to extend their system to any portion 
of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." The 
course of France and of other continental powers, by interfering 
with the affairs of Spain, according to the doctrines proclaimed at 
Laybach, by the allied monarchs, in 1822, "that they had a right 
to interfere in the concerns of another state, and to reform its 
government, in order to prcA^ent the effects of its bad example," 
was amply sufficient to warrant the declaration of the United 
States government that its future policy would be not only non- 
intervention,' but uncompromisingly continental. Any other course 
would endanger the peace of the continent. If war, under any 
circumstances, be deemed necessary, either for the cause of justice 
or for the advancement of freedom, it must be adjusted to the 
high standard of the Union. Nothing less. To divide the Union 
into several commonwealths would inevitably lead to troublesome 
complications abroad and perpetual wars at home. It is better to 
fight for one flag for years, than to fight for different flags for 
centuries. " The strength and happiness of America must be 
continental, and not provincial ; and Avhatever appears to be for 
the good of the whole, must be submitted to by every part : this 
holds true, and ought to be a governing maxim in all societies." 
This was the spirit of New Jersey in 1776, and it is the spirit of 
the people now. 

It was the remark of Jefferson that "we have seldom seen 
neighborhood produce affection among nations. The reverse is 
almost the universal truth." This great truth was seen by 
Cowper: — 

" Lands intersected by a narrow frith 
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed 
Make enemies of nations who had else, 
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one." 

" Neighboring nations," says an able writer, quoted by Ham- 
ilton, "are naturally enemies of each other, tmless their common 
weakness forces them to league in a confederate republic, and 



30 THE XXDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

their constitution prevents the differences whicli nei2,hl)orliood 
occasions, extinguishing that secret jealousy whicli dis]X)ses all 
states to aggrandize themselves at the expense of their neighbors." 
Besides, frontier evils would be multiplied, by subdivisions of ter- 
ritory, and should the views S]ioken of by the ])hilosopher of 
Stagira prevail, disfranchisement Avould hardly prove to be one of 
the least. " Some states," says Aristotle, "• have enacted that land- 
holders living on the frontier should not be allowed to vote in 
questions concerning war and peace, because such persons are likely 
to sacrifice to i)rivate interest the advantage and honor of their 
country." In a letter to John Taylor, in 1798, upon the subject 
of disunion parties in Virginia and North Cai-olina, Mr. Jefferson 
says, " Perhaps this party division is necessary to induce each to 
watch and delate to the peo]:)le the proceedings of the other. 
But if on a temporary superiority of the one party, the other is to 
resort to a scission of the Union, no federal government can ever 
exist. If to rid ourselves of the present rule of ]VIassachusetts 
and Connecticut, we break the Union, will the evil stop there ? 
Suppose the New England States alone cut off, — will our nature be 
changed? Are we not men still to the south of that, and with all 
the passions of men ? Immediately we shall see a Pennsylvania 
and a Vii'ginia party arise in the residuary confederacy, and the 
public mind will l)e distracted with the same jiarty spirit. "What 
a game, too, will the one party have in their hands, by eternally 
threatening the other, that, unless they do so and so, they Avill join 
their northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to Virginia 
and North Carolina, immediately the conflict will be established 
between the representatives of these two States, and they will 
end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that 
an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a 
thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of 
nations down to a town meeting or a vestry ; seeing that we must 
have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New Eng- 
land associates for that purpose, than to see our bickerings trans- 
ferred to others." Again, in a letter dated at Washington, March 
22, 1801, he says, "The times have been awful, but they have 
proved a useful truth, that the good citizen must never despair 
of the commonwealth. How many good men abandoned the 
deck, and gave up the vessel as lost ! It furnishes a new proof of 
the falsehood of Montesquieu's doctrine, that a republic can be 
preserved only in a small territory. The reverse is the truth. 
Had our territory been even a third only of what it is, we were 
gone." 

When Sir Edward advises fcnir commonwealths, it is obvious 
that he counts State sovereignty as nothing. This is a great 
error. We liave thirty-four independent States ; and it is a singu- 
lar feature of the jtreseii* war, that its cause makes an element 
that will be found in the solution of peace. The North prosecutes 
the war in defence of the Union, and the South in defence of State 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 31 

rights, — without which the preservation of the constitutional Union 
would be impossible. Thus both parties, but with widely dif- 
ferent motives, are alike engaged in defending the same great 
principles of constitutional freedom. The fundamental principles 
of State rights constitute the solid foundation of the republic, and 
any deviation whatever from such a standard will tend to a consoli- 
dated tyranny. While the attempt at secession will lead the 
people to study the parts in relation to tlie whole, the threatened 
dangers to the Union will lead them to study tlie whole in rela- 
tion to the parts. When the mangling ])rocess of separation shall 
be extended to the utmost limits of endurance, and the passions 
shall yield to manly patriotism, then differences will become hate- 
ful by association, and the affections, renovated by repose, will 
resume their sway. 

The outlines of our governmental system were happily given 
by Jefferson, when president, in a letter to the General Assembly 
of Rhode Island, in 1801. "It is a momentous truth," said he, 
" and happily of universal impression on the public mind, that our 
safety rests on the preservation of our Union. Our citizens have 
wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others, and several 
States as among themselves. To the united nation belongs our 
external and mutual relations ; to each State severally the care 
of our persons, our property, our reputation, and religious free- 
dom. This wise distribution, if carefully preserved, will prove, 
I trust, from example, that while smaller governments are better 
adapted to the ordinary objects of society, larger confedera- 
tions more effectually secure independence and the preservation 
of republican government." 

When the bitterness of controversy ends in 

Civil War, 

reason has exhausted her resources of manly adjustment. The 
passions are enthroned, impulse takes the place of motive, and 
frenzy precedes judgment. What man, as man, Avill not do, is 
deferred to the terrible results of battle. Principle rises to the 
dignity of influence when pride is humbled by a realizing sense 
of human weakness. When men fail to agree, and forget their 
frailty by assuming the uncompromising spirit of infallibility, they 
are permitted to demonstrate their blindness and to test their in- 
tegrity. Confident of their intelligence, and unconsciously ignorant, 
each party is nerved to rush forward into the dark regions of death, 
invoking the aid of Omnipotence and wildly defying the power 
of man. To pause is cowardice, and to reflect is treason. The 
Christian standard of peace is obscured by the mists of passion, 
and man is doomed to the desolations of human wisdom, and to 
see for a time what existence would be without righteousness or 
the mercy of God. Parents, children, and friends are placed in 
antagonistic relations, and woman forgets to smile, and turns h'.T 



32 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

love to hate. Both in the North and in the South prominent men 
are singled out with a special view to hateful notoriety, as if rep- 
resentative men were wholly responsible for all that they are 
asked to do, or were specially bound, unlike all other men, to 
think without error and to act without sin. If Lincoln sliould 
cease to exist, who, of his party, could be found to serve his 
country with greater integrity ? If Garrison and Phillips should 
be entombed with their fathers, who, of their class, could supply 
their place of zeal, and with more intelligence? If it should 
be the will of God to take to himself the spirits of Davis and 
Stejihens, who of the South could be found among their followers 
to prosecute the war of secession with a higher sense of honor, 
or to negotiate a peace with a superior wisdom ? Is it adding to 
the honor and glory of the nation to prove that any of the people 
within its broad domajn are cowards, — to say so much of sec- 
tional courage ? 

When men fail to agree, human agency is apparently suspended, 
and by attentive observation we are enabled in some degree to 
understand how opposing forces may develop the errors of opin- 
ion, and how war may illustrate the unity of truth. We shall 
find in the experience of America what is true in the history of 
Europe. The greatest living thinker, Guizot, says, " In Asia, one 
class completely triumphed, and the government of castes suc- 
ceeded to that of classes, and society sunk into immobility. 
Thank God, none of this has happened in Europe. Neither of 
the classes has been able to conquer or subdue the others ; the 
struggle, instead of becoming a principle of immobility, has been 
a cause of progress : the relations of the principal classes among 
themselves; the necessity under which they found themselves of 
combating and yielding by turns ; the variety of their interests 
and passions ; the desire to conquer without the power to satisfy 
it, — from all this has arisen, perhaps, the most energetic and fertile 
principle of the development of European civilization. The 
classes have incessantly struggled ; they detested each other; an 
utter diversity of situation, of interests, and of manners, produced 
between them a profound moral hostility; and yet they have 
progressively approached nearer, come to an understanding and 
assimilated ; every European nation has seen the birth and develop- 
ment in its bosom of a certain universal spirit, a certain community 
of interests, ideas, and sentiments, which have triumphed over 
diversity and war." 

Civil war is a war of differences between kindred and friends, 
and it can be ended only by a mutual understanding as to their 
causes, and the true remedies to be applied. Ignorance causes and 
submits to war, injustice inflicts its miseries, and suffering compels 
the attainment of practical knowledge as to the just means of peace. 
It may be a war of ambition or of duty, but not of destruction ; a 
war of injustice or of conscience, but not of lasting hate. 

Washington regarded the right of coercion an element of im- 



THE AMERICAN UNION. ;33 

perative necessity to the United States government ; but he was 
at a loss to decide " what kind of coercion " would be best. Jef- 
ferson did not deem it necessary to give Congress the enforcing 
power, because they V\'ere entitled to it by the laM's of nature. 
" When any one State in the American Union," he says, " refuses 
obedience to the confederation by which they have bound them- 
selves, the rest have a natural right to compel them to obedience. 
Congress would probably exercise long patience before they would 
recur to force ; but if the case ultimately required it, they would 
use that recun-ence. Should this case ever arise, they will prob- 
ably coerce by a naval force, as being more easy, less danger- 
ous to liberty, and less likely to produce much bloodshed." 

If war be inevitable, let patriotism characterize the battle, and 
magnanimity the councils of the nation. The cause of the Union 
is one of solemn grandeur, and no discordant levity or passionate 
bitterness should be pei-mitted to deface its beauty. Every patri- 
otic citizen should give to the government that prompt coopera- 
tion which shall render it before the world equal to its high duties, 
and acceptable even to its bitterest enemies. These enemies will 
soon be friends. Their months of failure will demonstrate centuries 
of success. The errors of a people may illustrate great truths, and 
even their sins may stand, by God's assistance, as beacons to warn 
posterity against like dangers. Patriotism is limited to no people, 
party, or section. It will be found in every State, and acknowl- 
edged by the people without the aid of chart or compass. The 
following stanzas taken from a beautiful ode which was sung 
at Charleston, S. C, July 4, 1832, will, we doubt not, ere long be 
repeated in that city, and with renewed devotion to the Union. 

" Who would sever Freedom's shrine? 
Who would draw the invidious line ? 
Thourfi by birth one spot be mine, 

Dear is all the rest : 
Dear to me the South's fair land, 
Dear the central mountaiu-band, 
Dear New England's rocky strand. 

Dear the prairied West. 

" By our altars, pure and free, 
By our Law's deep-rooted tree. 
By the past's dread memory. 

By our Washington, 
By our common parent tongue. 
By our hopes, bright, buoyant, young, 
By the tie of country strong, 

We will still be one.'' 

Let the achievements of the government be marked by firmness, 
and by such sentiments as we find in the proclamations of Gen- 
erals Dix, Sherman, and Halleck. " Force," says De Tocqueville, 
" is never more than a transient element of success ; and after 
force. .comes the notion of right. A government which should 
only be able to crush its enemies upon a field of battle, would 
very soon be destroyed." "An unconquerable instinct," says 
Guizot, " warns governments that force does not found right, and 



34 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF 

that if force M'as their origin, their right could never "be estab- 
lished." 

As no remedy can be found except in justice, let the govern- 
ment stand upon the immovable and eternal foundations of prin- 
ciple, as defined by the Constitution, and every struggle will add 
strength and dignity to the Union, and new hopes to humanity. 
"Where there is a right there is a remedy," is a sound maxim. 
In a letter, alluding to Shays's rebellion, from Paris, in 1787, Jef- 
ferson says, "We have had thirteen States independent for eleven 
years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebel- 
lion in a century and a half for each State. What country before' 
ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion ? And can 
history produce an instance of rebellion so honorably conducted ? 
I say nothing of motives. They were founded in ignorance, not 
wickedness. God forbid Ave should ever be twenty years without 
such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well in- 
formed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in propor- 
tion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they 
remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the fore- 
runner of death to the jiublic liberty. What country can pre- 
serve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned, from time to time, 
that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take 
arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon, and 
pacify them." 

The Union the Rock of Salvation. 

So long as the people of the United States are united upon the 
great truth that the rock of their national salvation is the American 
Union, constitutionally preserved, they have every thing to hope 
and nothing to fear. The safety of Union and the dangers of dis- 
union were seen by the fathers of the republic, and by their patriotic 
sons. The disunion of to-day has been caused by violations of 
the Constitution, by fanatics both in the North and the South, and 
the true remedy is to be found in a prompt return to its high 
requisitions of duty and practical equality. In the North, let it 
be seen that abolitionism is an impossible good, and at the South 
that secessionism is an impossible evil. Any further illegal at- 
tempt to accomplish either is to multiply dangers and to perpet- 
uate war. After the adoption of the Constitution objection to 
slavery was too late. " It was disposed of," said Harrison Gray 
Otis, " in substance by the original Articles of Confederation, and 
annulled in form by the Constitution of the United States." It 
is not slavery that has produced this war, but an unconstitutional 
interference with it, joined with the heresy of secession. Leave 
slavery where it belongs by agreement, and the spirit of secession, 
appalled by its own enojinities, so disproportioned to their cause, 
will recognize anew the sublime destiny of the Union, and joy- 
ously cease for ever. It is the duty of every citizen to understand 
the reality of State rights, and to respect them, and the impera- 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 35 

ative necessity of constitutional union, and to defend it. These 
are plain and solid realities, upon which society can repose undis- 
turbed by the speculative abstractions of impracticable schemes, 
and enjoy the comforts of duty and the exalted glories of religion. 

What Washington wrote to Mr. Madison, in 1786 might be use- 
fully repeated now as applicable to thirty-four States. " Thir- 
teen sovereignties," said he, " pulling against each other, and all 
tugging at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole ; 
whereas a liberal and energetic Constitution, well checked, and 
well watched to prevent encroachments, might restore us to that 
degree of respectability and consequence to which we had the 
fairest prospect of attaining." Again, in a letter to James McHenry, 
in Congress, he says, "I confess to you candidly, that I can fore- 
see NO EVIL GREATER THAN DISUNION ; than those Unreasonable 
jealousies (I say unreasonable^ because I would have a proper 
jealousy always awake, and the United States on the watch to 
prevent individual States from infracting the Constitution with 
impunity) which are continually poisoning our minds and filling 
them with imaginary evils for the prevention of real ones." 

John Adams said, in 1809, "I am totis viribus against any di- 
vision of the Union, by the North River, or by the Delaware 
River, or by the Potomac, or any other river, or by any chain of 
mountains. I am for maintaining the independence of the nation 
at all .events." In a letter to Gerry, in 1797, in speaking of the 
horrors of disunion, Jeflerson says, " Whatever follies we may 
be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our 
Union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to 
prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladia- 
tors. Much as I abhor war, and view it as the greatest scourge 
of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out of the broils of 
Europe, I would yet go with my brethren into these, rather than 
separate from them." Again, in noticing the dangers of disunion, 
during the period of the war of 1812, he said, " I do not believe 
there is on earth a government established on so immovable a 
basis. Let them in any State, even in Massachusetts itself, raise 
the standard of separation, and its citizens will rise in a mass and 
do justice to themselves on their own incendiaries." The legisla- 
tive council of South Carolina, in an address to Governor Rutledgc, 
1776, used the following patriotic language: "The declaration of 
the Continental Congress, that ' the United Colonies are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent States,' is a decree now 
worthy of America. We thankfully receive the notification of 
and rejoice at it ; and we are determined at every hazard to 
endeavor to maintain it, that so, after we have departed, our 
children and their latest posterity may have cause to bless our 
memory." In the Virginia Convention of 1787, Governor Randolph 
asked, " Can Virginia exist without the Union? A hard question, 
perhaps, but I will venture, however, to say, she cannot." What 
he asserted he ably proved. Speaking of the motives of the pa- 
triots of the revolution, Mr. Calhoun says, "To dissolve the Union 



36 THE INDISSOLUBLE NATUBE OF THE AMEBICAN UNION. 

was too abhorrent to be named." * * * « They regarded dis- 
union and consolidation as equally dangerous, and were, there- 
fore, equally opposed to both." In the United States Senate, 
1850, Jefferson Davis said, "If I have a superstition. Sir, which 
governs my mind and holds it captive, it is a superstitious kev- 
EKENCE for the Union. * * * If there is a dominant party 
in this Union which can deny to us equality, and the rights we 
derive through the Constitution, &c., this is not the Union for 
which our fathers pledged their property, their lives, and sacred 
honor." Governor Wise, of Virginia, on the 5th of July, 1858, said, 
" Listen to me now, and to what I am going to say. I wish that 
there was no noise, and that there was silence in all the earth, and 
that I had the trumpet of an archangel to sound it every where. 
When your fathers attempted to form this Union, they did not 
know beforehand what sort of a Union it was to be. But they 
went in for Union for Union's sake. They set to work to make 
the best Union they could, and they did make the best Union and 
the best government that ever was made. Washington, Franklin, 
Jefferson — all combined, in Congress or out of Congress, in con- 
vention or out of convention — never made that Constitution. 
God Almighty sent it down to your fathers. It was a work, too, 
of glory, and a work of inspiration. I believe that as fully as I 
believe in my Bible. No man, from Hamilton, and Jay, and 
Madison ; from Edmund Randolph, who had the chief hand in 
making it, — and he was a Virginian ; the writers of it, the authors 
of it, and you who have lived under it from 1789 down to this year 
of our Loi'd 1858, — none of your fathers, and none of your fathers' 
sons, has ever measured the height, or the depth, or the length, or 
the breadth of the wisdom of that Constitution." President Tyler, 
in 1844, sent a message to Congress, in which he uttered these 
words : " I regard the preservation of the Union as the first great 
American interest. I equally disapprove of all threats of its dis- 
solution, whether they proceed from the North or the South. The 
glory of my country, its safety and its prosperity, alike depend 
on Union, and he who would contemplate its destruction, even 
for a moment, and form plans to accomplish it, deserves the deep- 
est anathemas of the human race." 

Thus we might quote volumes from the published views of in- 
fluential men of all the States, from the period of the revolution 
to the present time ; and while they express great differences of 
opinion as to the best mode of preserving the republic, all unite 
upon the great fact, embodied in the sentiment, that liberty upon 
the American continent can be preserved and defended only by 
The Amekican Union. 

I have the honor to remain, 

■*' With great respect and true regard, 

Your servant and friend, 

NAHUM CAPEN. 

Hon. Peter Cooper, New York. 



LB D '05 



